Policy paper

Minutes of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Goods, 8th October 2021

Published 15 November 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

1. Minutes of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Goods, 8th October 2020

1 . The UK co-chair welcomed participants to the meeting. The provisional agenda as published in advance was adopted for the meeting.

Item 1 – Review of completed obligations in the chapter

2 . The Parties noted the completion of the obligations under Article 29 (notification of export licensing procedures) and Article 36 (exchange of contact details in relation to cultural property) of the TCA. The Parties noted discussion of the outstanding obligation for exchange of preference utilisation data, covered under Item 4 of the agenda.

Item 2 – Presentation taking stock/evolution of Trade in Goods in the TCA

3 . The Parties delivered presentations outlining key features of import/export flows, noting caveats in the data due to the continued impact of the Covid pandemic across Europe, unwinding of stocks in early 2021, and changes in methodologies derived from different data sources used following the end of the UK participation in the EU Single Market. The Parties exchanged information on methodological differences in producing trade data, exploring potential causes for discrepancies. Parties have agreed to undertake further technical exchange on the methodological difference.

Item 3 – UK renewable energy schemes

4 . The UK and EU discussed the UK’s Contracts for Difference scheme for renewable energy. In particular, the EU expressed concerns about the inclusion of a question on ‘the percentage of UK content’ in the supply chain plan. This is one of several questions with attached scoring, that developers are asked to answer on their supply chain plans. The UK explained that, in the award of subsidies for renewable energy its evaluation of the above-mentioned question in supply chain plans was not based on ‘the percentage of UK content’ but on a developer’s explanation of their preferred procurement options. The UK stated that the percentage figure is only asked on a ‘for information’ basis with no impact on the score. The UK further explained that changes to the reported ‘percentage of UK content’ during the implementation of a project would have no impact on the assessment of the implementation of the supply chain plans and subsequent payments. The UK noted that this had been made very clear to applicants and agreed to send the EU its written guidance and Q&A for applicants, which would clarify the interpretation of the UK content question, as explained in the committee.

Item 4 – Exchange of annual import statistics (Article 31)

5 . The Parties agreed modalities for data exchange. Parties provisionally agreed that data shall be exchanged as soon as possible within the second half of 2022, with a view to providing a full data set.

Item 5 – Update on EU initiatives to address carbon emissions embedded in imports

6 . The Parties noted a shared ambition on climate change, and the importance of carbon leakage. The EU presented its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism proposal, part of the European Green Deal, a timeline for its implementation, and how it will apply to imports from third countries. There was a productive exchange between leads on the impact of the proposals on trade in goods, and the Parties noted that domestic decarbonising efforts of third countries would be taken into account by the EU CBAM. Parties agreed to hold further informal technical discussions.

7 . The meeting closed with positive remarks, noting actions for future discussion.

2. Annex A: List of participants of the first Trade Specialised Committee on Goods

UK Delegation (32 attendees)

• UK CO-chair of the Trade Specialised Committee on Goods

• UK Government Officials from BEIS, Cabinet Office, DIT, HMRC, HMT

• UK Government Official from the ONS

• UK Government Officials from the UK Mission to the European Union

• Scottish Government Officials

• Northern Ireland Executive Officials

• Welsh Government Official

• Government of Jersey Officials

• Government of Guernsey Official

EU delegation (55 attendees)

• EU Co-chair of the Trade Specialised Committee on Goods

• European Commission Officials (TRADE, TAXUD, UKS, GROW, AGRI)

• EU Officials from Delegation of the European Union to the UK

• Representatives of EU Member States